The field of the invention is automatic car wash equipment and the invention relates more particularly to that portion of the automatic car wash apparatus which has a curtain typically made from a plurality of flaps of felt-like material, which curtain is used to spread wax, soap suds or other component used in washing a car.
Frequently, car wash customers request that their car be hand washed to lessen the chance that any small scratches are made in the finish of the vehicle. In the past, automatic car wash operations had no facility for retracting the downwardly hanging curtains and, thus, the car wash was able to provide either hand washing operation or automatic washing operation, but not both.
The car wash apparatus, because of its use of hot water, detergents and waxes operates in a highly corrosive atmosphere for most metal parts. Thus, the usual sliding supports are not capable of providing maintenance-free operation. Also, curtains used in automatic car wash apparatus are usually provided with an oscillatory movement to further assist in the spreading of wax, suds and the like. Such oscillatory movement further inhibits the type of mechanism which may be used.